Team League Reporter: All hail the all-kill

Another week passes by as the greatest StarCraft 2 teams on the planet scuffle over pride, old rivalries and prize money. And while GSL and NASTL are going their usual way (more or less), IPL TAC 2 arrives at a Korean-infested Winners bracket round 2.

StarTale VS HoSeo

We are only in the second week of GSTL and we already have a couple of “firsts” and there is but one person who is the reason for those. His name is Ji-Sung Choi, more commonly known as StarTale_Bomber. For those of you who still have troubles remembering, I will go into a short history lesson.

Bomber was once one of the most prominent terran players in Korea. Every time he played, he astounded people with his incredible mechanics and godly macro, surpassing even the best in the business, including IMMvp. In GSL May, he won the Code A gold after defeating the aforementioned IM ace, then travelled to Sweden one month later to finish third at DreamHack Summer and topped it all with a gold at MLG Raleigh in August. Then, Bomber’s performance started to wane, his MLG finishes got worse and so did his Code S ones until he finally ended in Code A. Some fans started to believe that Bomber had lost the ability to compete on par with the strong of the day, while others held to the opinion that he was just underpracticed.

You can choose which of these statements were refuted after Mr. Choi walked into the booth and 5-0’d HoSeo to score both the first all-kill for this season and the first ever five-man team kill in GSTL. Bomber’s crusade was astonishing, as the terran fought through ridiculous late-game situations (including the bizarre game against Seal that featured a lot of counter-attacks and calm and calculated crisis management by Bomber as the game entered a very scrappy state) and two TvPs against HoSeo’s star protosses. It took HoSeo four games to realize they need to send Jjakji forth but it was too late anyway - Bomber triumphed for the fifth time on Dual Sight, displaying his out-of-this-world macro that helped him immensely during the base race scenario.

StarTale 5:0 HoSeo
Bomber	>	Hoon	@ Antiga Shipyard
Bomber	>	Seal	@ Belshir Beach
Bomber	>	Sage	@ Metropolis
Bomber	>	San	@ Calm Before the Storm
Bomber	>	Jjakji	@ Dual Sight

Incredible Miracle VS Team SCV Life

The next day, IM - the team with possibly one of the strongest rosters in the world - went on to play TSL - a squad that keeps losing his players to other teams and, from the looks of it, is still in the process of recovering since its major restructuring in November last year.

There wasn’t an all-kill happening but Yoda was damn close, to be honest. Both Shine and Revival made silly mistakes and practically gift-wrapped the games for the IM terran and Cyrano just died to a stupid amount of marines, siege tanks and... Neosteel Frame bunkers. No, I am not making this up, go and watch the VODs.

Symbol was the first and only TSL player that stood triumphant this day. The zerg went through Yoda like hot knife through butter with early roach aggression and then, in set five, made use of Seed’s micromanagement mistakes to drag the set into the late-game and winning it with his highly efficient BL/infestor/hydra army.

Being threatened with a tie, IM summoned Mvp because why wouldn’t they. The Game Genie Terran has often been the go-to-guy when a immediate victory was needed and he did not let his team down. Mvp went through Symbol after defending his roach/baneling all-in and then smacking down Polt by catching him before stim was done and establishing an eventually victorious push.

Incredible Miracle 5:2 Team SCV Life
Yoda	>	Shine	@ Belshir Beach
Yoda	>	Revival	@ Cloud Kingdom
Yoda	>	Cyrano	@ Calm Before the Storm
Yoda	<	Symbol	@ Daybreak
Seed	<	Symbol	@ Entombed Valley
Mvp	>	Symbol	@ Antiga Shipyard
Mvp	>	Polt	@ Dual Sight

Next on GSTL: Losers matches, February 10-11

GSTL 2012 Season 1 Losers matches
FXO eSports	VS	Zenex
HoSeo	VS	Team SCV Life

In four days it will be Friday, Friday and I'll gotta get up, gotta catch the GSTL! Why? Because I want to see more of Treme, of course. In the opening week of the team league, Treme went against the oGs roster and scored three in a row against some of world's scariest terrans - NaDa, TheSTC and ForGG. So far, we know that Treme can and will dismantle terrans to pieces so I am eager to see him play Gumiho, for example, but what would be even more thrilling is unleashing the young protoss against other races too. Can he thrash out Lucky, Oz or Leenock? Two weeks ago I would say "Hell no!" but now... now nobody knows.

I am strongly favoring HoSeo for the second losers match. Although they did got all-killed by Bomber, I don't believe it to be a defining factor about the overall strength of the team. Seal played extremely well, Sage is known for being one of the most promising protosses nowadays and there is always Jjakji who, don't you forget, is still the reigning GSL champion. TSL, on the other hand, will have to pull some hidden ace out of their sleeve. Based on their first match of the season, I would say TSL's strength now lies mainly in the hands of Polt and Symbol and there is no ALive anymore for when they need another strong terran shoulder to rely on. Yet, TSL's roster size remains its biggest problem - there are very few players on the team and even fewer had actually accomplished something. Now, GSTL might not be all about personal successes but they do help when you are about to go against a GSL winner.



Team Empire continued to show their dominance, scoring another win against one of the best European rosters - the one of Mousesports. Thorzain was the only one able to win a set by dominating Aristeo to put the score to 1-1 after Violet's opening victory. It was entrusted to Mana and Bigs to carry the team to victory but they failed to do so as the terran elite duo Kas and Beastyqt came out strong to earn the 3-1 for team Empire.

FXO also continued to rise up the standings ladder, pushing RoxKis even further below. Lucky, Choya and Leenock were all successful for FXO and, much like team Empire, scored a 3-1 victory to maintain their top three position.

The series between Team Reign and Quantic Gaming was the closest one of the week, ending with a 3-2 for Reign. The teams kept trading set for set with Slush and Inori being the heroes for Reign and Theognis and Agh being the ones that kept Quantic on equal footing. This led to the ace Bo3 match, fought between Inori and Agh. The American was quick to draw blood and for the first time Quantic were ahead but Inori would not give them the pleasure of triumph. The Korean hit Agh back, and hard, winning the ace match and pushing his team to a positive overall score and lapping Mousesports to take the fourth place.

February 5th saw a classic rivalry rekindled as Liquid met Evil Geniuses. Following the first two weeks of NASTL, Liquid was one of the best performing teams in the league, i.e. the complete opposite of Evil Geniuses. Despite holding a champions-heavy roster, EG were thus far unsuccessful to secure a win, with only JYP managing to make something happen so that their defeats are not complete and total. This week, however, not even the Korean protoss could save EG from the massacre that occurred. Ret, Zenio and Hero were all successful against Puma, JYP and Idra respectively, securing Liquid's first and very important 3-0, bringing them to just one point difference from the leaders of Empire.

NASTL week 3 results
Empire 3:1 Mousesports
Violet	>	HasuObs	@ Belshir Beach
Aristeo	<	Thorzain	@ Shattered Temple
Kas	>	Mana	@ Daybreak
Beastyqt	>	Bigs	@ Artifice
FXO eSports 3:1 Rox.Kis
Lucky	>	Slivko	@ Belshir beach
TheBest	<	Titan	@ Shattered Temple
Choya	>	LiveZerg	@ Daybreak
Leenock	>	fraer	@ Artifice
Team Reign 3:2 Quantic Gaming
Slush	>	Sase	@ Belshir Beach
Kiwikaki	<	theognic	@ Shattered Temple
Inori	>	Apocalypse	@ Daybreak
Artist	<	Agh	@ Artifice
Inori	2-1		Agh
Team Liquid 3:0 Evil Geniuses
Ret	>	Puma	@ Belshir Beach
Zenio	>	JYP	@ Shattered Temple
Hero	>	Idra	@ Daybreak

Next on NASTL: Week 4 February 9-12

NASTL Week 4
Quantic Gaming	VS	FXO e-Sports
RoxKis	VS	Team Liquid
Evil Geniuses	VS	Mousesports
Team Reign	VS	Team Empire

There should be little doubt that the winners will keep winning come week four. FXO and Liquid are going against Quantic and RoxKis, respectively, and both top three contenders thus far have much stronger chances for victory than their opponents: they have the roster advantage, they have the confidence advantage, and, even if they lose, they still have the score advantage which is what matters at the end of the day.

EG are now down 0-3 so, just like for Quantic and RoxKis, it's do-or-die for them. They will have to be absolutely immaculate if they want to make it to the top four (which, I am sure, they do) but Mousesports are no slouches. EG should know - they've seen the European roster conquer their own team league twice in a row.

Reing vs Empire is for sure the most anticipated match for the next week, at least as far as I am concerned. Reign have been successfully digging themselves out of the loss in week one and shall now be against the leaders of the NASTL. A loss by Empire will lead to some strong disturbance in the standings and we might be in for some major jumble and repartitioning of power.



Sheth was the leading force for Liquid's victory against the coL.MVP roster as the American zerg came out second to score four wins in a row, giving his team a dominating lead in the series. Sheth was eventually stopped by Gowser, but the latter did not have what it took to turn the tides 180-degrees and Zenio stepped in to close the series 5-2.

EG shared coL.MVP's misfortune, losing 2-5 to the all-Terran line-up of oGs for that day. Illusion and TheSTC each signed two wins for every one of EG and then gave the podium to their fellow terran veteran ForGG to seal it all up.

Stepping away from the one-sided stomping, Prime and Empire actually played more than a decent series and went to full nine sets, during which were seen some amazing win streaks. Serbian terran Beastyqt opened with a victorious triage against Core, Classic and Annyeong before finally being stopped by Creator. Creator himself followed the "what you can do, I can do better" principle and single-handedly turned the score around, putting it to 4-3 for the Korean roster. Furthermore, the protoss demolished some of Empire's strongest contenders, including Violet and Kas and the Russian-based team was left with very few options. They resorted to Happy's prowess and the terran did manage to stop Creator's run but his joy was short as Prime's ace MarineKing was sent forth to do his job and he did it well enough.

IPL TAC 2 WBR1
coL.MVP 2:5 Team Liquid
Minigun	>	Haypro	@ Shattered Temple
Minigun	<	Sheth	@ Atlantis Spaceship
Catz	<	Sheth	@ Antiga Shipyard
Drewbie	<	Sheth	@ Calm before the Storm
Ryze	<	Sheth	@ Daybreak
Gowser	>	Sheth	@ Shakuras Plateau
Gowser	<	Zenio	@ Tal'Darim Altar
Evil Geniuses 2:5 Old Generations
Demuslim	<	Illusion	@ Shattered Temple
Idra	<	Illusion	@ Antiga Shipyard
Puma	>	Illusion	@ Terminus
Puma	<	TheStc	@ Daybreal
Machine	<	TheStc	@ Atlantis Spaceship
JYP	>	TheStc	@ Tal'Darim altar
JYP	<	ForGG	@ Shakuras Plateau
Prime 5:4 Team Empire
Core	<	Beastyqt	@ Shattered Temple
Classic	<	Beastyqt	@ Calm before the Storm
Annyeong	<	Beastyqt	@ Daybreak
Creator	>	Beastyqt	@ Tal'Darim Altar
Creator	>	Violet	@ Antiga Shipyard
Creator	>	Aristeo	@ Sanshorn Mists
Creator	>	Kas	@ Shakuras Plateau
Creator	<	Happy	@ Terminus
MarineKing	>	Happy	@ Atlantis Spaceship

After the completion of the Winners Bracket Round one, the tournament switched to a series from the losers bracket and we saw the first team being eliminated from the competition. Team Dignitas fell 3-5 to Team Vile and the latter should give endless praise to Hawk and State who fought through all of Dignitas' killing machines, including Merz, Sjow, Killer, Select and Bischu. Vile will be expecting the loser of TSL and StarTale and for all foreigners' sake, you better hope it's the former.

Next on IPL TAC 2: Losers Bracket Round 1

IPL TAC 2 LBR 1
Evil Geniuses	February 8	Quantic Gaming
Team Reign	February 9	ZeNEX
coL.MVP	February 10	Team Empire

If we are to draw a parallel line between NASTL and IPL TAC 2 we can say that EG vs Quantic is the battle of the losers. Neither of the two team is performing to any measurable level of good so, consequently, they are both in the losers bracket, threatened by elimination. And deservedly so. I dare not say who is the favorite here as, on paper, all the players on these rosters are supposed to win games but they fail to do so. Ironic, isn't it?

Team Reign have been doing quite well in the NASTL and this should give them some confidence going against Zenex. However, a foreign team is still to win a series against a Korean roster so if this tradition holds true, Reign are toast. In the WBR 1 they fell to the zerg-heavy roster of TSL and be sure that Zenex will definitely be bringing a more diverse line-up.

Finally, I am sad to see Team Empire in the losers bracket. They were the only team that proudly stood their ground to the Koreans as best as they could, and they are absolutely crushing the western resistance at the NASTL. Their star trio Kas-Violet-Happy is a scary force and coL.MVP should really hope that their own front-line warriors are ready, as I fell they will be going down. In fact, I am nearly 100% sure.